Design, fabrication and characterization of stable and efficient micro-organic thermoelectric generators
Fellow:
Nathan James Pataki (ESR 3)
Home Institution:
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy (IIT)
1st Secondment:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Charles Sadron, France (CNRS)
2nd Secondment:
InnovationLab, Germany
Supervisor:
Mario Caironi (IIT)
Co-Supervisor:
Martin Brinkmann (CNRS)
Objectives
- Develop an expertise in printing of organic and hybrid TE materials, to improve the architecture of TEGs and the fabrication of printed micro-OTEGs with the aim of exceeding 1 μW/cm2 at ΔT = 10 K.
- Formulation of printable doped semiconductor inks of the most efficient and stable TE materials developed in WP1
- Printing tests of the inks formulations for both vertical and rolled/folded geometries, focusing on inkjet, laser writing and screen printing
- Design and development of proof-of-concept TEGs (up to few legs) by printing techniques, considering the architecture allowing the best thermal conversion given by COMSOL simulations
- Development of suitably encapsulated all-direct-written TE micro-OTEGs (12 x 12 thermocouples in one cm2) on plastic substrates
- Short and long operational stability tests of printed TE modules.
Expected results
- Reliable processing of doped polymer by scalable printing
- Improved design of TE modules
- Fabrication of stable printed micro-OTEGs
Skills acquired
- Solution-processing of TE materials
- Inkjet, laser writing and screen printing of functional materials and devices
- Design and characterization of OTEGs and modules